This invention relates to a culinary utensil and, in particular, to a culinary utensil known as a rotisserie for supporting meat in an open framework which is slowly rotated over a fire or the like.
In barbecuing meat, including fowl, roasts and other foods, it is common to rotate same slowly over hot coals, fire or other sources of heat to obtain an evenly cooked piece of meat. There are a number of devices on the market and disclosed in previously issued U.S. patents for this purpose. A common means of retaining the meat is by skewering it on a spit and employing some further mechanism to prevent the meat's disengagement from the spit. An example is shown in the Roasting Pan Spit Device of E. Bocchino, U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,400 which issued Dec. 31, 1929. A more recent example is the Culinary Utensil of E. Kozikowski, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,496 of Dec. 20, 1977.
It is considered advantageous to avoid piercing the meat with a spit or skewer and, in view thereof, a basket device for supporting and confining a roast or the like in a rotisserie is disclosed in the patent issued to M. Greenwald on Apr. 21, 1959, U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,812. For outdoor barbecues provided with rotary spits, a basket device with a spit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,362 of Dec. 21, 1965 to J. Kozar.
There are several problems with cooking devices of type involved aside from the obvious ones such as maintaining cleanliness and ensuring that the meat is adequately secured. These exist largely because apparatus must be adaptable to a number of different types of meats, having different consistencies and distinctive configurations. In all cases, it is desirable that the meat be held firmly, centered reasonably well on the device and have means to prevent or at least restrict relative movement parts such as, for example, wings of a fowl.
Other U.S. Patents which suggest various approaches to the above problems and are indicative of the state of the art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 504,256; 559,720; 2,374,302; 2,638,841; and 2,897,776.